Elevating Wilbur Ross, who helped helped shape the Trump campaign’s economic agenda, particularly its hard-line stance on the need to renegotiate — or even withdraw from — free trade agreements to a position in his Cabinet could suggest that Trump intends to nurture the nationalist streak that was one of the hallmarks of his campaign.washingtonpost.com(See also Department of Commerce)

Commerce Secretary confirmation hearing on Trump nominee Wilbur Ross delayed to give him more time to complete the required ethics paperworkwsj.com(See also Department of Commerce)

2017.01.10

Wilbur Ross is no stranger to trade protectionism, having taken a hands-on approach to safeguard tariffs that would help his investments in two North Carolina textile mills.mobile.reuters.com(See also Department of Commerce)

Donald Trump's nominee for commerce secretary admitted at his confirmation hearing that he had employed an undocumented household worker for seven years.buzzfeed.com(See also Department of Commerce)

2017.06.15

The Trump Administration's Department of Commerce has outraged LGBT groups by removing sexual orientation and gender identity from the list of categories explicitly protected from discrimination in its latest equal employment opportunity statement.buzzfeed.com(See also Department of Commerce, LGBTQIA)

An investigation reveals Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has financial ties to 36 previously undisclosed ships that are spread among at least nine companies, along with the Russia-tied company — Navigator Holdings Ltd. — Ross has a financial interest in at least 75 ships, most of which move oil and gas products across the globe.apmreports.org(See also Department of Commerce, Conflicts of Interest, Corruption, Russia)

The value of those ships stands to grow as Ross negotiates trade deals on behalf of the U.S. and advises on U.S. infrastructure policy, and one fund linked to Ross was still buying and selling ships after Ross was confirmed as Commerce secretary.

2017.11.15

A trio of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s ex-longtime colleagues at his private equity shop, WL Ross & Co., have sued the secretary and the firm for allegedly charging at least $48 million in improper management fees and pocketing the money.vanityfair.com(See also Corruption, Department of Commerce, Legal Issues)

2017.12.12

Following reports that Wilbur Ross vastly overvalued his wealth and failed to disclose his holdings in a Russian shipping company partly owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law, whose long relationship with Donald Trump has been tested by the disclosures, is facing scrutiny by European lawmakers over allegations that he engaged in insider trading related to his 2014 sale of shares in the Bank of Ireland.motherjones.com(See also Department of Commerce, False Statements, Conflicts of Interest, Corruption, Criminality)

2018.03.26

The 2020 census will ask respondents whether they are United States citizens, the Commerce Department announced Monday night, agreeing to a Trump administration request with highly charged political and social implications that many officials feared would result in a substantial undercount.nytimes.com(See also Department of Commerce, Immigration)

Critics of the change and experts in the Census Bureau itself have said that the inclusion of a citizenship question could prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally not to respond. resulting in a severe undercount of the population — and, in turn, faulty data for government agencies and outside groups that rely on the census, also bleeding into the redistricting of the House and state legislatures in the next decade.

People who work with Wilbur Ross claim that he has wrongly siphoned or outright stolen millions of dollars - more than $120 million - ranking him among the biggest grifters in American history.forbes.com(See also Department of Commerce, Criminality)

2018.09.18

Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Congress earlier this year that he added a citizenship question to the 2020 census to help the Department of Justice enforce the Voting Rights Act, but contradicting that sworn testimony, new evidence shows that Ross received a memo several months earlier informing him that the Justice Department wanted to avoid monkeying around with the census because of “the whole Comey matter.”courthousenews.com(See also False Statements, Department of Commerce, Corruption, Voter Suppression)

The government had asked the Supreme Court to block questioning of Ross as part of a lawsuit filed by several states, including New York, and civil rights groups. The groups are seeking to stop the administration from adding a citizenship question to the decennial count.